<Begin Segment 21>

TI: So we're starting the second day of interviews with you, Maynard. Today is Friday, November 21, 2008. And where we left off yesterday was right, it was 1947, and you were just leaving China. And, in fact, you showed me this great picture of you, and your dad, leaving China. And you were then, at that point, returning to Washington, D.C. And why don't you tell me, what were you returning to? Why back to D.C.?

MH: I had long desired to leave the family. I was not happy being with the family, so when the chance came up for me to go back and work in this unit at headquarters in Washington, D.C., I gratefully and happily accepted it. Which would be the first time in my life except when I was in junior college here that I would really be on my own.

TI: And your, can you share your unhappiness with the family? Why, was it just wanting to be more independent or was there more to that?

MH: The situation was very difficult with my mother, and I was, I was just not very happy with the whole family situation. My father, of course, was extremely busy, and he sided with my mother. [Laughs] It was not a, at that point, twenty-two, I guess, I really wanted to leave the home.

TI: Okay, so twenty-two, you're in D.C., you have a job, you're living on your own. And what kind of work did you do?

MH: I was, I was learning to be a good editor, an editor of classified reports. And that involves not only putting into good English what, the reports that I received, but it was also evaluating them as far as their relevance in relation to the actual situation, I mean, political situation or military situation. And therefore adding notes which would clarify that aspect of the reports.

TI: It sounds similar, yesterday we talked about sometimes some people have the ability to make connections.

MH: Yes.

TI: And information would come in, it sounds like that's what you were doing. You were oftentimes connecting to other information that was out there.

MH: Yes. Which, which assisted me to evaluate the truth and falsity of the information.

TI: So it sounds like a pretty interesting job.

MH: Very interesting. Very interesting.

TI: And so other than, so you work, and was this a pretty intense assignment? Were you working long hours learning this craft?

MH: Actually, no, I wouldn't say that. I mean, you know, the usual government time. At that time, in the position I was in as just really learning, I normally just put in the usual hours, the government hours, yes. But later on, when I became head of a unit, I did go in on weekends to work.

TI: Well, so it sounds like you're a young woman, twenty-two, and you have a job that is forty hours a week. Which, and you're not living with your family anymore, so that gives you time for other activities. So what was it like growing up, or being a single young woman in D.C.?

MH: Well, I did, I did have a friend at that time I became engaged to and had planned to marry, so we spent a good deal of time together. And, but that, as it happened, fell through later on. And so that was one of the reasons I left for Japan.

TI: Before we do that, during this time period, any other, sort of, events or... in fact, earlier you mentioned having tea at the White House.

MH: Yes. Dad was back and Mother was back there, I don't remember what ceremony it was. But while they were there, because of Dad's position, Mother and I were invited to the White House to have tea with Bess Truman. And Bess Truman was not too pleased by these social events, but she was, she received us, and was, I would say, rather cool about it. But you know, not, not particularly out-coming. And so it was an interesting thing just to get into the White House and to have tea in, I think was the Blue Room, we had tea in. The sense of history that one feels there, yes.

TI: Well, you've been in lots of situations where they probably called for sort of formal arrangements. Was the White House similar to that, or was it even more different than...

MH: No, it was just a pleasant tea in a nice room, very brief, actually. Not very much conversation of any depth.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.